Paul McCartney & Youth (aka The Fireman)

The Fireman Finds His Voice With Brand New Album Electric Arguments Album Release Date: 24th November 2008 The Fireman are back after a ten-year break and this time they have something to sing about. For the first time ever the The Fireman have found their voice, Electric Arguments is their first release to feature vocals. Electric Arguments is their third and brand new studio album and it’s not the album people might expect from the mysterious duo… “Ambient dreams in rainbow arches describe the circles of The Fireman”, is how the duo described their music in a rare interview around the release of their last album ‘Rushes’ in 1998. Their first album ‘Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest’, released in 1993, was a solid ambient dance album heavy on electronics. Around this time the identity of The Fireman was unknown until the press exposed the duo as none other than Paul McCartney and Youth. The now defunct music bible Melody Maker heaped praise on the project, “Paul McCartney has discovered dance music – the results are staggeringly brilliant. They (The Fireman) take a melody and, with dexterous genre-hopping through ambient, trance and house, evolve a number of breathtaking variations.” Last year The Fireman returned to work again to start work on what would become Electric Arguments. The results this time are entirely different. Earlier this year The Fireman donated a new track, Lifelong Passion, from Electric Arguments, to the charity Adopt-A-Minefield. This new track marked a directional change for The Fireman. Lifelong Passion showcased a new more traditional song based sound with vocals, going against the sound of the first two albums. And so the speculation began. A ‘studio source’ was quoted in The Times as describing their new sound ‘like Arcade Fire meets Led Zeppelin’. So what had The Fireman been up to and what does the album sound like? Electric Arguments is an eclectic and varied album consisting of thirteen tracks recorded in thirteen days over the period of nearly a year. Each track was written and recorded in the space of one day. The Fireman went into the studio with no plan or clear direction of how they wanted the album to sound. The project took a life of its own and the results will surprise anyone expecting to hear the previous sound of the band. The album’s opener Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight is classic rock and an instant attention grabber. A heavy guitar riff with loud drums and souring vocals, it’s like nothing The Fireman have ever done before. The second track, the acoustic driven Two Magpies immediately takes you in a different direction, calming things right down. Then we reach the third song Sing The Changes, a euphoric upbeat song with an instantly memorable melody. Electric Arguments continues in this fashion, keeping the listener intrigued as to where The Fireman will take them next. Each album track has an entirely different personality, yet somehow this collection sits together perfectly. Other standout tracks include ‘Light From Your Lighthouse’, ‘Sun Is Shining’ and ‘Dance ‘Til We’re High’, all in keeping with the genre-hopping spirit of the first two The Fireman albums. Electric Arguments demonstrates that Paul McCartney is still interested in pure musical possibilities. This is an album set to both surprise and delight the listener. Made with no record company restraints or a set release date to work to, Electric Arguments was made with complete artistic and creative freedom.